wtc7engineeringpapers,collapsehypotheses

August, 2008: NIST's draft report on the collapse of WTC building 7 has been released for public comment. Click here to download the full report in pdf form. NIST's press release and other material on the report can be found here. Video of NIST press briefing about the release.

"Pull it" – another use."Right
where we were almost when the first building collapsed, there was a
huge collapse, a big wall of stuff, and it was on fire. Eric found a
house line, and he grabbed the house line and he was saying, "Let's
pull it." We pulled it over, and we got caught up on some stuff, he
came back, helped me pull it out. I went to turn the wheel of the
gauge and there was no pressure. There was water in it, but you could
squeeze it closed." FDNY Firefighter James Murphy packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110323.PDF

WTC 7 collapse quotesDennis Smith, Ret'd FDNY: "All of a sudden, the forty-seven
story building before us begins to shake. 'It's coming down,' someone
yells, and everyone gets poised to run in the opposite direction. It
falls almost as if in slow motion, sinking straight down, and then
leans to the south, leaving most of its rubble against the north wall
of building 6. (Report from Ground Zero by Dennis Smith. Penguin,
2002. p. 176)

Charlie Vitchers: "I had a clear view down
Washington Street of Building Seven, which was on the north edge of the
site. All forty-seven stories were on fire. It was wild. The MPs said
the building was going to collapse. I said, "Nah, I don't know." And
then all of a sudden I watched the building shake like an earthquake
hit it, and the building came down." (Nine Months at Ground Zero by
Glenn Stout, Charles Vitchers, and Robert Gray Scribner, 2006. p. 15-16)

Bobby
Gray: "Suddenly we saw firemen running and yelling, "Seven's going to
go, seven's going to go!" Seconds later, Building Seven is gone. I
watched the northeast corner of the roof kind of buckle and then the
building came straight down. Clouds of dust rolled and blew down the
side streets like a hurricane going horizontally. (Nine Months at Ground Zero by
Glenn Stout, Charles Vitchers, and Robert Gray Scribner, 2006. p.17)